Not this time

Chapter 1

Falling was something that Kai had gotten used to during the past few years. Being a ninja meant falling a lot. Especially from buildings. It wasn't hard to forget most of these moments, seeing as they were falling a lot. The memory that stuck with him though was the one where all of them fell through the window of borg tower.

This one was different though, because this time he didn't know where he was going to land. The ground, sure, maybe. But falling from the wooden construct and right in the way of the time portal that the time twins had opened, meant something entirely different.

He could land in the past, in the future, maybe even in another timeline. Kai had no idea where he was going to land but he knew one thing, it would not be on the ground of this cave.

He saw the way the other ninja looked at him. How Wu looked at him. For a second everything had been fine. They thought that they had won and could shut the iron doom down. But then the floor beneath the fire ninja cracked and broke.

There was only a moment before he saw them vanishing from his sight. Then again when they looked over the edge. He saw Cole holding Jay back who was about to fall himself when trying to reach the other. No, they couldn't reach him in time. There was no way that they could jump after him either.

For a second every possible color washed into his sight as he fell through the bright portal. The others vanished on the other side of the timeline he was about to land in. Kai wondered when he would land. If he would even land in a time where he already existed. Maybe in the future where he was already dead. A distant future where peace was present. Or a raging past where they would have to fight Garmadon again.

He actually wouldn't mind raising Lloyd again. There were many things Kai would do differently though. But only so much he could change without affecting the future. He didn't know if he would be allowed to stop Lloyd from freeing the serpentine. How that would change things.

He would definitely stop himself from being a dick to the kid though. And the future? There was no harm in doing anything there. You couldn't affect the past by traveling to the future, right? He would have to find out the hard way.

Before he could think about it too much, Kai landed hard on his back. The floor was hard and made purely from wood. The high ceiling holding a lot of shelves.

Sitting up, Kai observed his surroundings. This building seemed familiar, but he didn't know where he knew it from. Was this the past or the future?

"Hey, did you fall from the ladder?"

Kai quickly jumped up at the voice, turning around to face Jay. Ladder? Turning his eyes towards the wall, he saw what Jay was talking about. A ladder with wheels to move it around was leaning against the tall wall.

"Uh, yeah. Kinda lost my balance there" he laughed.

"Ha! Great ninja you are. No matter. We have the whole day to fill up the shelves with tea" the blue ninja laughed.

"Tea?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, tea. Sensei's tea. Y'know? For his new teashop?" Jay gave him a funny look. "Don't tell me you already forgot."

Teashop? Now the red ninja knew what he was talking about. That also explained all the boxes in the corner. It was the day sensei decided to open steep wisdom.

He had landed in the past. On the worst day of all of their lives. The day of their greatest failure. Wait, shouldn't there be another him? No, Jay would've noticed. The last time they went to the past there were two for each of the ninja. This time though, he wasn't watching the events unfold in front of him. This time it seemed like he had taken the place of his past self.